“SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services…” [launched July 11, 2008]

“Using location-based technologies, Loopt lets you know where your friends are by automatically updating maps on your mobile handset. Loopt even lets you send messages to nearby friends or receive automatic alerts when they’re nearby so that you never miss an opportunity to meet. Loopt also lets you journal your life so that your friends can see what you’re up to. With Loopt, mobile subscribers put themselves on the map.”

JotYou™ is location based messaging. Send a message to your friends so they get it when they arrive at school or the ballpark or the mall. Make up geo-games. Track a foot race or bicycle race. Stage a road rally with virtual checkpoints, and feed the directions as participants progress. Ever plan to pick up the milk on the way home from work, but drive right by the store and forget? Use JotYou™ to remind yourself as you pass by specified locations. The possibilities are endless.

How it works: You send a message to one person or many people, and specify a delivery time and location using the map on the computer, or an address from your mobile. When they arrive at the location you specify, JotYou™ alerts them by “buzzing” their cell phone, and delivering the message. It’s just that simple!

A stylish GPS-Blackberry 8820 – from the press release, 24 March 2008:

“T-Mobile USA and Research In Motion (RIM) … announced the national availability of the BlackBerry 8820 smartphone, featuring built-in GPS… Available in a sophisticated midnight blue finish, the BlackBerry 8820 is RIM’s thinnest BlackBerry smartphone.

The stylishly professional BlackBerry 8820 helps people stay connected to business associates, colleagues, family and friends by offering Wi-Fi connectivity for voice and data, access to location-based applications and services, and a superior mobile experience for personal and corporate e-mail.”

“To make the digital layer of plazes visible in the city a selected number of plazes in Berlin got marked by interactive tags on the sidewalk. Each of these Plazemarks are individual icons but they all share the same graphical language. Each Plazemark has the Webadress of the specific plaze of Plazes.com encrypted. The technology behind these icons is called “Shotcode”. By using a standard mobile phone it is possible to decode the encrypted ink and browse to the specific plaze. A small java application decodes the tag from a picture taken by the phone’s camera.”